Searchers Find Bodies of Missing DSU Students
|  Video
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| Andrew Keller |
| 11/3/2009 |
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| After two days of searching, police have confirmed that the vehicle three Dickinson State athletes were last seen in has been found with their bodies inside. The DSU softball players are identified as Afton Williamson, 20, and Kyrstin Gemar, 22, both of California and Ashley Neufeld, 21, of Manitoba, Canada. Police say they believe the women drove into a 12 foot deep pond Sunday evening about two miles off the main road and made frantic phone calls to some friends. "Kyrstin, Ashley, and Afton were essential parts of not just the softball team, but they were also critical to the student body," says Constance Walters, a university spokeswoman. "They will be greatly missed by their friends and family." Family, friends, teammates devastated by the news. The search started late Sunday night when the women told friends they were going stargazing, looking at the millions of stars visible in the dark North Dakota sky. Sunday night at 11:18 was the last time anyone heard from the three. Two friends received calls from the teammates, frantic, and mentioning water. Numerous law enforcement agencies went on high alert Monday morning. They sent out a force to find the three missing women. They interviewed all of their friends who may have known anything. They spent most of yesterday searching from the air, and on the ground, looking for the missing white Jeep, until the sun went down. In the morning the search resumed. Police sent up three planes, commissioned a dive team, and had ground crews in place. Police had narrowed their search to a 13 mile radius northwest of Dickinson. An afternoon news conference was cancelled and then rescheduled. That`s when police said what everyone had feared. "At approximately 4:25 Mountain Standard Time, the 1997 white Jeep Cherokee was pulled from a stock pond northwest of Dickinson," police lieutenant Rod Banyai read from a statement. "The three women that law enforcement had been searching for were located in the vehicle. Three women were deceased." Police say there`s no indication of foul play. They say cell phone tower records were instrumental in finding the girls. |
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